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Limin Cup

The Limin Cup World Top Star Tournament（利民杯）is an international tournament held annually at the Chinese southern city of Hangzhou. The organiser Hangzhou Qiyuan is an official branch of Zhongguo Qiyuan, the Chinese national Go organisation. Hangzhou Qiyuan not only hosts its local League teams, but also the 2nd Chinese national Go squad, consisting of many young Go prodigies. China's vast territory means that it is impractical for all Go players to live and train in the northern capital city of Beijing. So a second base in Hangzhou becomes a good solution. An earlier event Hongda Cup is probably the predecessor of this event.

Tournament Format:

This tournament is open to young professional players globally. Professional participants need to be under 20 years old (although this limit is not imposed on Western players). Top Chinese amateurs and Japanese & Korean inseis can also participate as long as they meet certain age constraints. In reality, due to high costs, only a small number foreign players travel to China to play the qualifying tournaments.

There are two qualifying tournaments. During first qualifying stage, players are divided into eight groups. Each group runs a five-round Swiss tournament. The top 4 finishers then enter a small knockout tournament to decide the group winner. The eight group winners enter the main tournament. Those who fail at the first qualifying tournament may have a second attempt at the second qualifying tournament.

The main event is a knockout tournament of 32 players: 16 of them are from the two qualifying events; 4 seats are reserved for the top finishers of the GLOBIS Cup; the remaining 12 are allocated as follows: 4 from China, 2 each from Korea and Japan, 1 each representing Chinese Taipei, Europe and North America, and 1 wild card player decided by the sponsor.

Prize Money:

Winner: 400,000 CNY; runner-up: 120,000 CNY. There are also small game fees for players entering the knockout stage of the qualifying tournaments, and everyone is the main tournament.

Time System:

1 hour main time followed by 30-second byoyomi.

Ruleset and Komi:

Chinese rule with 3 and 3/4 stones komi (equivalent to 7.5 points).

Key Players, Events and Statistics:

Although this is a U20 tournament, the level is actually very high. Several world-champion-level Chinese players, including Ke Jie, are still young enough to participate.

As shown by the results, holding an international title doesn't guarantee a good position in this tournament.

Historical Results:

Term

Year

Winner

Score

Runner-up

Game Records

1

2014

Tong Mengcheng

1-0

Yang Dingxin

2

2015

Gu Zihao

1-0

Lee Donghoon

Go4Go Collection Note:

Go4Go has all main tournament games and many qualifying tournament games.